


Lance, Shiro, and Their Five Dates with Insomnia

by DeathByStorm



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A Pinch of Insomnia, Conveniently my Shiro, Gen, I Think This is preslash, Liberally Seasoned with Sleeplessness, Post Season Four, Softer than I Imagined, a dash of angst, red paladin lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 04:24:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13628535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeathByStorm/pseuds/DeathByStorm
Summary: Or four times that Lance and Shiro helped each other sleep and the one time they fell asleep together.





	Lance, Shiro, and Their Five Dates with Insomnia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eilera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eilera/gifts).



> Thank you as always to Eilera for her Beta services.

 

 

1.) Homesickness

 

Lance couldn't sleep.

  
It was something that he had never been familiar with as a kid. His childhood home had always been full of people. Even when he would go back home for vacation from the Garrison, it wasn't uncommon for his niece or nephew to come to him late at night and burrow under the covers after a bad dream. Thinking about them reminded him of the distance between them and he shivered, wrapping his housecoat more tightly around him.

 

It was nights like these that made the castle seem even bigger and more empty than usual. Sometimes, if he closed his eyes, he could almost see the ghosts of the Alteans and dignitaries from dozens of other worlds wandering the halls. The same high ceilings and deep arches in the architecture that gave it such an air of dignity during the day gave it an air of sepulchre after lights out.

 

Even the star map couldn't keep him distracted from his melancholy thoughts. He got up from where he'd been sitting in front of the console and turned the display off. He stifled a yawn and stretched. He knew better than to try to sleep when he was still buzzing like this. So, even though it was absolute murder on his skin, he didn't head back to bed. Instead he swung by his room and grabbed his bayard.

 

The light was already shining in the hallway out of the training room. As he came closer to the entrance, he could hear the grunts and impacts of someone fighting hand to hand with the droids. He peeked through the doorway. Shiro had his back to him and was probably working off some late night restlessness. Lance shook his head. He may not have been able to sleep, but he had nothing on Shiro and the demons that he fought daily.

 

Lance leaned against the wall directly inside with his arms crossed and just watched Shiro devastate the training droids. Shiro's last swing with his robotic arm went right through the droid, making it explode in a shower of pixels.

 

Lance whistled, impressed.

 

Shiro jumped and turned. He deactivated his arm when he saw Lance. “Couldn't sleep?”

 

“Yeah,” Lance said. He waved his bayard. “Thought I'd burn off some extra energy.”

 

“This would be a great time for extra work on your hand to hand combat training if you're up for it,” Shiro said.

 

“I knew you wouldn't be able to resist me for long.” Lance flashed his most dazzling smile at him.

 

Shiro raised his eyebrow, unimpressed but Lance could tell that he was suppressing a smile.

 

“It would probably tire me out quicker than shooting would,” Lance admitted. He set his bayard aside.

 

Shiro let the smile take over his face and Lance felt his heart lurch in his chest. He gestured to one of the mats. “We're going to go over some basic forms to help you warm up, and then I'm going to take you through some more advanced ones.”

 

Lance went through some stretches and some basic yoga forms. He glanced over to where Shiro was waiting and resisted the urge to gulp. Though he'd agreed to it, Shiro was known for being kind of ruthless when it came to hand to hand. He shook the thought from his head and headed over to where Shiro was waiting. He assumed the basic fighting stance that had been taught to him back at the Garrison

 

“Ready,” he said.

 

“Okay, so I want you to come at me,” Shiro said.

 

“You're kidding, right?” Lance said. “I'll get creamed.”

 

Shiro chuckled. “Don't worry. I'll go easy on you.”

 

“Well, here goes nothing then,” Lance said. He charged forward, feinted to the left and swung his right fist.

 

Shiro's foot lashed out and connected with his back knee. In a split second, Shiro had his arm twisted behind his back and his shins cracked painfully on the floor. “Ow. You call that going easy on me?”

 

“Yes. There are a few things that I've noticed that you do. First, you need to lower your center of gravity. I should not be able to push you over so easily.” Shiro released him and pulled Lance to his feet. “Now show me your best fighting stance.”

  
Lance bent his knees and raised his fists. “Like this?”

 

Shiro walked around him and pushed at his shoulders. Lance wobbled but stayed steady. He nodded. “You'll need to spread your legs a bit more.”

 

Lance bit back another flirtatious remark with difficulty and did as Shiro asked. This time when Shiro pushed at his shoulders, he didn't wobble at all. “Your fists need to be a little higher as well. As it is, you're leaving your face open.”

 

Lance raised his fists a little higher. “Is this better?”

 

Shiro's brow furrowed and he reached out and gently moved Lance's arms into the correct position. “Like that. Okay so take a swing at me.”

 

Lance swung. Shiro knocked his fist aside. “You throw a decent punch, but you broadcast where you're going to hit. If you're going for my kidneys, don't look at my kidneys. Look at me.”

 

“But how?”

 

“That part, you'll have to figure out yourself. Again.”

 

They kept along that vein until Lance was swaying on his feet from exhaustion. It was exactly how he wanted to feel. Shiro on the other hand, looked like he could continue going all night.

 

He stifled a yawn with his fist. “Well, I'm beat so I think I'll try sleeping again. Thanks for letting me join you.”  
  
Shiro smiled. “Anytime, Lance.”

 

Lance laughed. “I'll hold you to that. Make sure you get some rest, Shiro.”

 

Shiro smiled and the dark circles under his eyes looked even more prominent than usual. “I'll try.”

 

2.) Midnight Snack

 

Lance hummed along to himself as he danced to the tune that was playing off of his phone. As much as the insomnia was frustrating, Lance was learning to find peace in the quiet moments late at night. Right now, there was no one to bother him if, say he wanted to listen to cheesy music to remind himself of home and make a snack.

 

“Honey, I'm still free. Take a chance on me,” he sang under his breath as he put together some leftovers.

 

“Is this what you do when no one's around? Dance around and listen to ABBA?” Lance let out a girlish shriek and turned around.

 

Shiro was leaning against the door with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. “I didn't take you for an ABBA kind of guy, but I'm not surprised either.”

 

“You listen to the golden oldies?” Lance asked.

 

“My grandmother was a fan of ABBA,” Shiro said. He walked into the kitchen. He sung along softly to the next line probably in an attempt to ease Lance's embarrassment. “If you put me to the test; if you let me try.”

 

At that moment Lance learned that while Shiro was definitely one of the most beautiful people he had ever met in his life, he couldn't sing for shit. Lance gave him a small smile and grabbed his hands. To his delight, Shiro let him lead them in an awkward waltz around the kitchen. They stumbled over each other, laughing.

 

“Want some tea?” Lance asked when they'd finished waltzing through Mamma Mia and Waterloo.

 

“There's tea?” Lance had never seen such a hopeful look on Shiro's face before in his life.

 

“Well, space tea technically,” Lance rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Hunk accidentally made it, but it sort of tastes like the memory of green tea.”

 

Shiro gave him a warm smile. “I'd love some.”

 

Lance gave him a smile back before pulling some cups, a couple of tea infusers and the tin of space tea out of another. Shiro's eyes felt like a brand on him as he scooped the loose leaves into the infusers. Lance felt his ears go red. In the background, his phone switched over to some soothing jazz. Manfully, he ignored the weight of Shiro's gaze and went over to the sink. He pressed the button on the side of the sink and the taps rose up from the counter.

 

“I can't help but wonder why they decided to do that,” Shiro's voice broke through the odd tension in the room making Lance jump.

 

“What, make the taps retractable?” Lance said. “Aes-asth looks, I guess. Do you know neither Hunk nor I have been able to find a kettle in here? We asked Allura, and she said that they seemed inefficient when you can just select the heat setting of the water coming out of the tap. Me? I think it just isn't the same.”

 

Shiro hummed.

 

“How do you take it?” Lance said.

 

“Black,” Shiro said.

 

“Cool. Here you go,” Lance pushed the tea towards him before pulling some milk out to dump in his.

 

They drank in an awkward silence that wasn't present a few minutes ago. In order to ease it a little, Lance hummed along to the music.

 

Shiro clears his throat. “So, why're you up?”

 

“Couldn't sleep,” Lance said. “You?”

 

Shiro shook his head. “Me neither. The tea is good though and so is the company.”

 

Lance gave a sad smile down into his cup. “Yeah, tastes like home.”

 

He felt a warm weight settle on his shoulder and looked up. Shiro gave him a kind smile and squeezed his shoulder. Lance found himself returning it.

 

“I think I feel relaxed enough to try to sleep now. See you in the morning?”

 

“Yeah, have a good sleep, Shiro,” Lance said.

 

As Shiro walked out, Lance could see that the tension in his shoulders was gone. He returned to eating his snack with a smile.

 

3.) Failure.

 

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Lance had failed. Every time he closed his eyes, he could only see the terrified eyes of the girl as she realized that he wasn't going to make it in time. He was useless. If only he had been just a little bit faster. If only he had been a little bit smarter and seen the Galra behind her sooner. He wiped the frustrated tears from his eyes and took a deep breath. He was holding onto the controller so tightly that it creaked in his hands.

 

Lance had reassured Hunk that he was fine and that he knew that it was war. These things happened and after five days of non stop fighting that someone was bound to slip up sometime. Hunk had looked at him with this awful look of empathy that made Lance feel like he had been laid bare before him.

 

At the end though, Hunk hadn't been there, Lance had. He was the one that had let that kid die. And he knew that it wasn't his fault, but he still felt like it was. Lance had sat with the team for a bit afterwards. Everyone, even Allura had given him hugs.

 

Hunk had given him a knowing look when he'd begged off saying that he was worn out from what had happened. That was the thing about having a best bro. Lance couldn't hide that from him. The other thing about having Hunk as a best bro was that he may be nosey as hell, but he also knew when to back off and let Lance process something on his own.

 

There was a knock on the door. Lance didn't answer, hoping that whoever was knocking would just leave him alone to his misery. It was two am. The only person that would likely be bugging him was-

 

“Lance? Are you in there?”

 

Great. Just great. The last thing that Lance wanted was the man that he still low-key hero-worshipped - even though he knew exactly how absolutely human Shiro was – to see him like this. He paused the game, set down the controller and dried his eyes on his sleeve. Ultimately, he decided to remain silent and wait until the black paladin gave up.

 

The door slid open and Lance bit back a curse. Of course, he'd forgotten to lock it. Then he remembered that the room he was in was one of the common rooms so he couldn't have locked it anyway. Man, he needed sleep. He turned and looked to see Shiro's frame outlined by the light coming in from the hallway.

 

“Hey, Shiro,” Lance said. To his credit, his voice didn't waver in the least.

 

“Hey, Lance. Do you want to spar with me? I figured that you shouldn't be alone right now,” Shiro said.

 

Lance shook his head. “I actually just wanted to do something completely non Voltron-related for now. Just shut my brain off you know?”

 

He may have wanted to be alone, but Shiro's presence right now was filling him with a warmth that made the crushing sense of failure easier to bear. When Lance thought back to all that Shiro had been through, he knew that he would be able to understand how he was feeling right then.

 

“Do you want me to leave then?” Shiro asked. “I wasn't kidding when I said that you shouldn't be alone, but I'll respect your wishes if that's what you want.”

 

“No!” Lance said. “No. That's fine. I ... just don't want to talk about it. That's all.”

 

“Is there room for one more?” Shiro stepped into the room.

 

Lance gave a weak laugh. “Yeah, there's a spare controller and everything.”

 

He shifted over to make some space and grabbed the other controller from beside the console. Shiro sat down beside him close enough that Lance could feel the heat radiating off of him. Younger him would have been so stoked to play video games with the Takashi Shirogane. Hell, he was still stoked under the guilt. At that thought, the full weight of what happened rushed back. That kid had died and here he was playing video games. Lance shook his head in an attempt to dispel the thought. He saved his solo game and restarted it in two player mode. Together, they slowly made their way through the first dungeon.

 

If Lance had to stop every once in a while to wipe away the tears, Shiro was kind enough to make no mention of it. As his eyelids grew heavier, he began to lean into Shiro. A warm weight rested around his shoulders encouraging him to relax. The controller slipped from his hands as Lance finally relaxed into a dead sleep.

 

He woke up the next morning in his own bed with no recollection of how he had gotten there.

 

4.) Injury

 

“I thought I'd find you here,” Lance said. “You know he's going to be fine, right?”

 

Shiro jumped from where he'd been sitting in front of the pod. Keith was frozen inside, healing from a particularly grievous blow that he had received on a Marmora mission. The Marmorites had dropped him off at the Castle of Lions as the Altean healing pods were the best for the gash on Keith's chest.

 

Lance sat down beside Shiro and looked up at Keith's face. Even in cryosleep he was frowning and if it was a less worrisome situation, it would have made Lance laugh.

 

“Shiro?”

 

“I'm fine,” Shiro said. “I know he's going to be fine.”

 

“It's okay to be worried, you know,” Lance said. “I know you have this whole stoic 'I am the leader and I am in control' thing going on, but I'm your right hand man right now. You can let me shoulder some of the burden”

 

“Thanks, Lance,” Shiro said.

 

They sat in silence for a while.

 

“Do you think that the Blade is good for him?” Shiro said suddenly.

 

“I don't know, man. I think there are good things and bad things,” Lance said. “Keith seems to have found his calling doing this covert stuff and he's good at it. From what I can see I mean. He's almost as good at it as he is at flying but...”

 

“But?” Shiro prompted.

 

“But they seem to treat their people as disposable. I'm not sure if that's good for anyone,” Lance said. “I mean the only reason that he made it back at all is because he basically dragged himself here. And you remember what he did in the last big battle.”

 

“I already talked to Keith after that. Even though it is dangerous, I think this is something that he needs to figure out on his own. No matter how much we may want it to be different,” Shiro said the last part to himself.  
  
“What?” Lance said.

  
“He needs to figure out that running away won't solve anything. He thinks that if he leaves first, then we can't leave him,” Shiro said quietly. “I'm not going to go into detail, but he's had a hard life.”

 

“True,” Lance said. “He was living in a shack in the middle of the desert by himself after all.”

 

The conversation lapsed again. Lance stared up at Keith again before looking down beside Shiro.

 

“You didn't eat?” Lance said.

 

Shiro looked at the dish sitting beside him. The goo had long since congealed and began to harden. “I guess I forgot,” He said. “I've just been worried about Keith. He's basically like a my younger brother.”

 

“Yeah?” Lance said. “He's a hot head. I bet you were always dragging him out of trouble at the Garrison.”

 

Shiro chuckled despite himself. “He used to get in trouble a lot. I remember this one time that he flew a simulation in such a way that he broke my record. The only thing is, he broke the standard rules that were put on the simulation in order to do so. Keith didn't care and Iverson nearly blew his top because of it. I ended up having to play peacekeeper.”

 

“Keith's lucky to have you to care for him,” Lance said. He found the jealousy easier to swallow than he had in the past. After all, the fact that Shiro was able to share this with him showed that he at least trusted Lance a little more than he used to.

 

“Shiro?” Lance said once Shiro had finished his story. “Are you hungry?”

 

Shiro gave him a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. “No, Lance, I'm fine.”

 

“But you missed lunch too. I know because we all did due to that skirmish with the Galra,” Lance crossed his arms over his knees. “You know Keith wouldn't be happy to hear that you're starving yourself or not sleeping on his account.”

 

“That's a dirty trick,” Shiro said.

  
Lance got up and extended his hand to him to haul Shiro to his feet. “No, it isn't. Not really .”

 

“I guess not,” Shiro said.

 

“Come on. I'll fix you a plate of goo. You can come back after you've slept a few hours and maybe showered. I'll come back to watch him after you're settled so he won't be alone.”

 

Shiro sighed, but was ultimately too tired to argue with Lance. He took one last glance back at where Keith was suspended in the healing pod and followed him out.  
  


 

+1 Nightmare

 

 

Lance jerked awake from a dead sleep to muffled yelling on the other side of the wall. It stopped suddenly and a few moments later he heard footsteps going past his door. He sat up immediately and then hopped out of bed and towards the door only stopping to stick his feet in his slippers and to grab his robe. The castle was cold at night and he didn't want to have to talk to Shiro with frozen blocks of ice for feet.

 

He wandered down the halls and checked Shiro's usual haunts. He already knew that he wasn't in his room, so he took the time to check the kitchen and the training room. There was no one there. In the end, he gave up. The castle was big enough that if Shiro wasn't in those places, he didn't want to be found.

 

As he couldn't sleep either now that he'd been woken up, he decided to head to his own favourite haunt and take a look at Earth on the star map. It was the thing that most often relaxed him enough that he would be able to sleep again.

 

When he got there, he was surprised to see that the map was already up. A hulking figure sat in his usual place with his knees drawn to his chest. Lance hesitated before he took a deep breath. He trailed his hand along the wall on the way. It was his turn to comfort Shiro. He was sure that Shiro wanted to talk to him. Lance had fallen asleep here more than once and woken up with a nudge from one of the team. Shiro wouldn't have come there otherwise.

 

“Is this seat taken?” Lance asked.

 

Shiro looked up from where he'd been sitting with his knees pressed to his chest. He patted the ground beside him in invitation. “Hey. I was wondering when you would show up.”

 

Lance smiled and sat down cross legged beside him. “Anything on your mind?”

 

“Couldn't sleep,” Shiro said. “Nightmares. I keep dreaming that one of you are hurt in the heat of battle and we don't make it back to the castle in time. I know that I dream of the gladiator ring too, but I don't remember those dreams when I wake up.”

 

“I'm sorry, Shiro,” Lance said. Lance raised his hand and tentatively put it on his shoulder. Much to his surprise, Shiro leaned into it a little and relaxed. “I wish there was something that I could do.”

 

“I've been meaning to say...,” Shiro trailed off.

 

“Yeah?” Lance said.

 

“Thank you. You've been a real help to me lately,” Shiro said. “I don't always show it, but I appreciate it.”

 

Lance straightened up and gave him a smile. “It means a lot coming from you,” He said.

 

Shiro cleared his throat. “Will you tell me about Varadero beach? I've heard you mention it before, but I wouldn't mind really hearing about it.”

 

Lance smiled and felt a twinge of homesickness settle in his chest. “I grew up along Varadero beach. It is a spit which means that it's a long stretch of sand with the ocean on both sides. The water is bluer than the sky...”

 

Lance was in the middle of describing the time he entered the surfing competition the year before he enlisted in the Garrison when he felt a weight hit his shoulder. He looked to his side and Shiro was slumped over with a peaceful look on his face. Lance fell silent and just looked at him. Shiro was far too heavy to move, so carrying him back to bed like he had done for Lance was not an option. He didn't have the heart to wake him either. This close, he could see the black shadows under Shiro's eyes.

 

Lance had no choice then. Slowly, in order to avoid shifting Shiro too much, he straightened his legs and relaxed. He found Shiro's weight soothing even though the way his chin was digging into his shoulder was a little uncomfortable. It settled him and his eyelids grew heavy. The last conscious thought he had was that Shiro's hair was very soft.

 

Fin

 

**Author's Note:**

> Shortly after I finished this, I realized that Lance probably has that gaming system in his room. Ah well.
> 
> Come yell about Voltron with me on my new [Tumblr](https://www.deathbystorm.tumblr.com)


End file.
